Wonder How Much He Paid

According to the news reports, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno underwent hip replacement surgery yesterday and all was successful. That's great.

But I'm just wondering how much he had to pay for it, out of pocket. I'm willing to bet he didn't have to pay one red cent. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that any college or pro football player who has to be treated for injuries don't have to pay any of their own money for it, even though they can well afford it a lot more so than us regular folks.

I have nothing against Joepa, or any other football player or coach for that matter. I am just saying this because of how I feel about our society's treatment of athletes and celebrities, which you already know from reading some of my other writings. They get all the money and glamour while those of us who do the "real work"of the world struggle to get by. I still owe the hospital a ton of money from last year that I'm paying off bit by bit. And it just irks me that these people have all the money and special treatment just because they play football.

So Sayeth The Shack

Ecomonic Disaster Fast Approaching

From CNN http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/26/beck.deficit/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Let's say a giant asteroid was headed toward Earth right now and experts say it has a good chance of ending civilization as we know it. Let's also say that we've known about this asteroid for years but even as it gets closer and closer our leaders do nothing.

"Don't worry," they tell us, "The next administration will figure something out."

With the future of our country at stake, would Americans really sit back and tolerate that kind of inaction? Of course not -- we'd be sharpening our pitchforks and demanding answers.

Well there may not be a space asteroid heading toward us, but there is an economic one -- and the threat to our future is just as severe.

You might think that I'm talking about the recession (sorry: potential recession) or credit crisis, but I'm thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.

Let me give you three numbers that will put this economic asteroid into perspective: $200 billion, $14.1 trillion, and $53 trillion.

$200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.

$14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy

And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.

While no one will ever mistake me for Alan Greenspan, it seems to me that the third number is quite a bit larger than the other two. It also seems very few people care.

According to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees report (and I use that term loosely since it has the word "trust" in it) released earlier this week, the economic asteroid will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.

Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicare taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact.

Realizing that Americans have become pretty much numb to these kinds of ridiculous sounding proposals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."

Now, I know we're all worried about important sounding things that none of us understand, like CDO's, SIV's, and Credit Default Swaps, but did you hear what our Treasury Secretary just said?

"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."

Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.

That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Internal Revenue Service. Actually, knowing our government, they'd probably keep the IRS going somehow.

Of course, none of this is exactly breaking news. Our leaders have known about this rapidly approaching asteroid for years now and they've done nothing but debate it. At the same time, I'm a realist. I understand that this stuff is "the third rail of politics," but our leaders' negligence on this issue is damn near criminal. No, correction, it is criminal.

Americans aren't afraid of the truth. In fact, we crave the truth only slightly more than we crave a leader who will actually give it to us. But part of the problem with this issue is that numbers followed by 12 zeroes aren't very relatable to the average American. Instead, try this on for size.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.

In an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of my magazine, Fusion, former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."

Wow. Does the size of our debt hit home now?

The America that I know doesn't sit around waiting for someone to rescue it from disaster. Besides, who do we expect to swoop in and save the day? Congress? The president? Please -- they're not only the ones who put the asteroid into space, they've also been making it bigger with irresponsible spending on everything from prescription drugs to billions in rebate checks and bailouts.

Bruce Willis and Tommy Lee Jones? They're more likely to be on Social Security than to save it.

And that leaves only us: We the People. Like every other crisis we face, it's up to us to save ourselves.

But how?

Be honest, no matter what side of the political aisle you're on, it's obvious that our financial deficit is dwarfed only by the deficit of trust we have in our leaders.

I'm willing to do the right thing for our future, I'm willing to sacrifice, but not when I believe that our leaders will do nothing but make the asteroid even larger.

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None of us want to see our taxes go up, especially with our budgets being squeezed by inflation. But as I have said before, there is a crash coming, and drastic action must be taking to save our country and our economy. My guess is that rather coming from the top (our so-called "leaders") it may actually come from the bottom by way of some kinds of grass roots revolution. That is if we can get our minds away from Britney Spears, NASCAR and March Madness and focus on what is really important.

So Sayeth The Shack

Things I Don't Get

OK I suppose I'm starting to get up in years, but there are some things and fads that I just don't get.....

BACKWARDS BASEBALL CAPS. The visor is supposed to be in the front to serve a purpose, but nearly everyone wears them backwards anymore. To me it makes them looks like hoodlums.

EARRINGS ON GUYS: Until I was about 20 or so, only girls wore earrings. Now most guys seem to wear them too. For what? To me it makes them look gay...even though I know that is not usually the case.

MOTORCYCLES: Why do they have to be so gosh-frickin' loud!? You can hear them coming (and going) for miles and they scare the frickin' crap out of me. And they usually travel in packs too which makes it even worse. There have been a few times that I have almost had a wreck because I was scared by the sound of a motorcycle. Why are they allowed to be so loud but if my car sounded like that I would get a citation or fail inspection?

FIREWORKS: (While we're on the subject of unneccesary noise..) What is the big deal with these? You've seen one you've seen them all and they just make a lot of useless racket. Used to be they were just on the 4th...now it's New Year's, baseball games, football games....weddings maybe? And some people just set them off for no reason at all...just to make noise. (Maybe I'll have some set off at my funeral!). They are a big waste of money too as far as I'm concerned. Might as well just take some money out of your wallet and set it on fire.

CELL PHONE AND MUSIC PLAYERS: Seems like everyone you see out and about, either walking or driving, has a cell phone attached to their ear or or a headset on. Can't anyone stand the sound of silence anymore? I like music as much as anyone but, especially as a parent, I value the sound of silence when I can get it, which isn't very often. Besides I can't imagine what they all have to talk about or who they have to talk about it to. (Guess I'm just a loser who doesn't have any friends).

OUR OBSESSION WITH SPORTS AND CELEBRITIES: Our society holds professional athletes, musicians and actors/actresses in the highest regard...above our leaders, our teachers, engineers, medical professionals and religious leaders. We pay them more than anyone else. And then they get even more money to promote other products. An entire second industry is built up to closely track their every movement and mistake and to quickly inform the world of it. You know what? They can all jump off the end of the earth as far as I'm concerned. The world would be none the worse for it. In fact it would be better. All that money would be freed up to help solve some of our real problems like poverty and homelessness.

SPITTING: I am always seeing (mostly) guys spitting. This is especially true when watching a sporting event. What do they have in there to spit out? I don't spit....never really feel the urge to. There just isn't anything in there to spit out. Maybe I'm just weird or something.

ADULTS DRESSING UP FOR HALLOWEEN: When I was young, kids were kids and adults were adults. I never saw adults dress up in costumes for halloween and act like idiots. I think it's stupid. I think the whole thing is stupid, including the kids dressing up in costumes and collecting candy. And of course the vandalism that often occurs is uncalledfor also.

HOLLISTER: Except for being a town in California, I have no idea what this is. Yet I see people all the time wearing shirts or jackets that say "Hollister". Would someone please explain to me what and what the big deal is with Hollister?

"MARCH MADNESS"AND THE BRACKETS: I don't really care much for basketball and I really don't get the playoffs. It seems like every team is in the playoffs, so why even bother having the regular season? Plus everyone and their brother is running around with their brackets, trying to predict who the ultimate winner will be. Many people bet on them, and large amounts of work time is lost talking about the outcome of the latest round of games. I really don't care who is in the playoffs, or who wins. This goes for both the college and professional levels.

So Sayeth The Shack